Three weeks later the first violation letter arrived. Non-compliant vessel commercial signage. Your vessel displays lettering and graphics inconsistent with the community's residential marina aesthetic guidelines. Fine $200 per day beginning day 14.
The commercial signage was the boat's name. Sarah Grace, painted by my wife's hand in letters she chose, in colors she picked. That was the signage Vivian wanted removed. I drove to Vivian's house that evening.
She answered the door holding a glass of Sancerre and wearing the expression of a woman who expected applause, not pushback. The boat's name isn't commercial signage, Vivian. It's the vessel's registered name. Under federal maritime law, a documented vessel is required to display its name and hailing port on the stern.
Removing it would put me in violation of 46 C.F.R. Part 67. That's a Coast Guard regulation, not a suggestion. She sipped her wine.
I'm sure the board can work with you on an appropriate compromise. There's no compromise on federal documentation requirements. The name stays. The fine was quietly rescinded.
But Vivian didn't forget. She just recalibrated.
Over the next 18 months, Vivian launched what I can only describe as a campaign of bureaucratic harassment designed to make owning a boat in Harbor Point so miserable that I'd sell and leave. She filed nine violation notices. My dock box was oversized. My shore power cord was creating a trip hazard.
My outriggers were extending beyond the slip boundary. They extend 4 feet when deployed and 0 feet when stored, which is how they were stored every single time she cited them. Each violation carried a fine. Each fine compounded daily.
Each appeal was heard by Vivian, Patty, and Dennis in Vivian's sunroom over chardonnay and cheese plates. She sent a courtesy letter to my charter clients. I know this because one of them, Frank Bullieu, a cardiologist from Raleigh who'd booked three trips with me, forwarded it to me with a note that said, "Jack, is your HOA president insane?" The letter, printed on Harbor Point Estates stationery, informed charter customers that commercial fishing operations conducted from the Harbor Point Marina are currently under board review for compliance violations.
And recommended they consider alternative charter services until the matter is resolved. She'd found my clients' names from my website booking testimonials and mailed individual letters to six of them. Three canceled. $1,800 in lost bookings from a woman who ran her real estate showings out of the same marina she was calling residential only. She also filed a complaint with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries claiming I was operating an unlicensed commercial fishing operation from a residential dock.